Mine Was to Extract Phosphate for Use in Making Herbicide Glyphosate.
A federal judge on Friday fully vacated a set of approvals by the Bureau of Land Management authorizing development of the Caldwell Canyon phosphate mine in southeastern Idaho.
Phosphate from the mine was slated to be used by Bayer AG — which in 2018 purchased the pesticide giant Monsanto — in manufacturing glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup brand products. Glyphosate has been found by the Environmental Protection Agency to pose a risk of adversely affecting 93% of the plant and animal species protected under the Endangered Species Act.
The court said that any economic burdens caused by its decision to vacate the BLM’s prior approvals for development of the mine were outweighed by the need to ensure the ruling did not “incentivize agencies and third parties to ‘invest heavily in potentially illegal projects upfront, only to claim later that the economic consequences in setting aside those projects would be [too great to ignore].’”
“This strip mine would’ve cut through the heart of crucial habitat for greater sage grouse and other species – all in service of producing a pesticide that is itself pushing our most endangered wildlife closer to extinction,” said Hannah Connor, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Now sage grouse have a fighting chance at continuing to dance their age-old dances in this place. And the government can’t go on arbitrarily ignoring the environmental harms of phosphate mining.”
Federal Judge Nixes Approval of Idaho Phosphate Mine
A federal judge on Friday fully vacated a set of approvals by the Bureau of Land Management authorizing development of the Caldwell Canyon phosphate mine in southeastern Idaho.
Phosphate from the mine was slated to be used by Bayer AG — which in 2018 purchased the pesticide giant Monsanto — in manufacturing glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup brand products. Glyphosate has been found by the Environmental Protection Agency to pose a risk of adversely affecting 93% of the plant and animal species protected under the Endangered Species Act.
The court said that any economic burdens caused by its decision to vacate the BLM’s prior approvals for development of the mine were outweighed by the need to ensure the ruling did not “incentivize agencies and third parties to ‘invest heavily in potentially illegal projects upfront, only to claim later that the economic consequences in setting aside those projects would be [too great to ignore].’”
“This strip mine would’ve cut through the heart of crucial habitat for greater sage grouse and other species – all in service of producing a pesticide that is itself pushing our most endangered wildlife closer to extinction,” said Hannah Connor, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Now sage grouse have a fighting chance at continuing to dance their age-old dances in this place. And the government can’t go on arbitrarily ignoring the environmental harms of phosphate mining.”
Federal Judge Nixes Approval of Idaho Phosphate Mine